


Drown

by LivetoDream333 (orphan_account)



Series: Double-O Drabbles [45]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Angst, Death by Drowning, I'm going to shut up, It's not a good idea, M/M, Meh...you're used to me killing Q now, Oh but I'm not that evil, Pop Quiz, Revenge, Sherlock Holmes References, Which would have been cute had Q not been in the middle of dying, Why do I tag when I know I'm sleep deprived?, not yet, really you'd think I'd get bored with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 11:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3444872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/LivetoDream333
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vesper's brother waited years for this moment.<br/>He really had no problem with Q...except for that James genuinely loved him...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drown

**Author's Note:**

> Don't throw eggs just yet.   
> Also RDj Sherlock Holmes References... Just saying...   
> I should never write sleep deprived...yet I still post.

Drown

 

James Bond doesn’t love, not for many, many years after his heart is turned to stone. So Fred waits and watches…and watches…and waits. Then there was something…something different about him. Then there were little things, little hints.

A coat around Q’s shoulders that was too broad to be his.

A cup that never went dry when Bond was in the branch.

Little kisses.

Hand holding.

Fred waited and waited, watching.

There were loving kisses.

There were cuddles.

There were naps.

There were tears when Q was hurt in a minor explosion.

James was caught. James was in love.

Now to wait for a fight, every couple argues.

It was only a month later when James came back, broken from a mission, and going to Q’s office.

The conversations started with a kiss and ended—half an hour later—with anger and James getting kicked out.

Fred smiled and waited for darkness as he watched James slam the door as he left.

800Q8

Q sighed and started packing his things, leaving his office and walking before heading for the door. “Everything alright, Q?” Fred asked. Q jumped and looked up at the security guard.

“I’m sorry Fred…I just…had a rough day.”

“But James came back.”

“He’s part of the problem. Damn man refused to get help…the man fucking drives me crazy sometimes… I’m not angry anymore but, but still…” Q sighed and shook his head.

“People you care about tend to be the most irritating… Can I walk you out?”

“Thank you, Fred.” Q smiled at him.

As soon as they were out of the building and out of sight of cameras Fred covered Q’s mouth with a cloth and wrapped a strong arm around him. Q struggled, but his fatigue didn’t leave him with much strength to do so…and he collapsed, unconscious in Fred’s arms.

“Sorry, Q… I really do like you.”

800Q8

Q didn’t come home and James didn’t like it. He couldn’t sleep well without the man next to him…and he hated that they had fought over medical of all things. James just wanted him to come back home.

It was morning when James found the envelope in front of his door.

He didn’t know what he would be starting by pressing the on button.

800Q8

Q woke up slowly and blinked, the lights were bright and gave him a headache. He was quite surprised that he wasn’t tied up and instantly stood up and reached out, only to find glass, surrounding him in a circle. As soon as his eyes adjusted he realized he was in a glass tube of some sort, air coming through a hole in the top, an open vent no larger than a quarter in front of him. Fred was just on the other side of the glass. “Fred? What’s this about?”

“It’s not about you, Q…and I’m sorry about this, I truly am…but this is between James and I.”

“What?” Q asked, confused.

“See…James led my little sister to her death…she drowned. He watched as someone I loved was taken away…so I’ll make him watch. It really has nothing to do with you… Just fell in with the wrong sort, Q.”

“So I take it this fills with water then?”

“Yes… Just under twenty-one gallons an hour.”

“Yes, and by my measurements I’m in a 500 gallon tank. So I have what…one day?”

“Just one. 24 hours only. It started when James opens my gift and ends just when it’s too late. See… I borrowed some tech from a friend in Q-branch. Lovely little tablet. I can feed a live video feed into it and can’t be traced back, not by anyone less than yourself, in the time it will take for that tank to fill completely. In the end he’ll either be arriving after he’s watched you die, or just in time to watch you… Really, this isn’t about you though…” He sighed.

“Fred…he didn’t do that on purpose.”

“You’re biased.”

“No, I’ve read the reports and he felt terrible for her death—he even killed the one who’d betrayed her—”

“He wrote those reports Q, and we all know how honest he is with them.”

“He doesn’t lie to me.”

“Apparently he does.”

“You’re last name isn’t Lynd.”

“It never was; when my parents died. I was old enough to live on my own, Vesper was put into the system.”

“That’s why we didn’t catch it….”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Q, after all I would have never been hostile towards you. No… This is for James.” The laptop attached to the camera began to beep and on the third beep water began to pour on Q’s head. “That’s your James now…” Fred turned before sitting in front of the camera, he hit a button as Q tried to find a way to plug the holes over his head. They were too high to reach.

800Q8

James pressed the on button and looked at the screen. It started beeping and a buffering symbol appeared before a semi-familiar man did. “Hello, 007, you don’t know me, but I know you. I trusted my sister to you several years ago and you let her die. I’ve been waiting a very long time for you to feel even a portion of the love I felt for my sweet Vesper… I think you love Q, if you’re heart’s still capable of it.” The head moved and James saw Q, trapped, trying and failing to shimmy upwards to stop the flow of water above him. “Every hour I’ll add water. In sixteen hours, he’ll be treading water. In twenty-four, he’ll have to hold his breath. Though…I do wonder if a leg cramp will kill him first. Either way, you get to painstakingly watch him drown. I don’t want anything from you…except to know that you’ve experienced a shred of my pain. I’ll get out of your way so you can watch this.” He winked before he moved away.

James grabbed his gun and ran out the door. He needed to get to MI6.

800Q8

“You don’t understand! It’s Q’s coding!” Jen snapped. “It would take him twenty hours to get through it.” She said typing like a mad woman.

“We don’t have that time. Go faster.”

“I realize we don’t have the time, Bond. I’m doing everything I can.” She snapped. James growled under his breath and turned to one of the minions.

“Have you found his car?”

“No, he took a cab into a car park with no surveillance. He could have taken any of the hundred-thirty-nine cars that left within the next hour, all of which capable of storing an unconscious body.”

“Then track them all.” James insisted. “What about his tracker?”

“Removed from him, 007.”

“Fuck…what about—?”

“James, we’re doing all we can—just—just get out from underfoot.” Jen said as gently as she could without looking away or slowing her work.

James sighed heavily and went to Q’s office…if he punched a hole in the plaster, no one mentioned it.

800Q8

The water was up to Q’s chest—the small vent had long since closed and sealed tightly, leaving nothing but water all around him—when he realized the weight he’d be carrying. He quickly pulled off his cardigan. He was going to have to tread water for a long time and weight wasn’t going to be his friend. He took his jacket and shirt off, slowly they sank, he managed to kick off his shoes and socks and trousers, leaving himself in his pants, he reached up slowly and grabbed his glasses, snapping them in half before letting them sink as well.

He prayed that they knew.

800Q8

James watched as the ground was swept out from under Q’s feet. Jen—R—hadn’t stopped working since the beginning. Every minion had come in and none of them had taken breaks. There was nothing more that could be done…and R said she still may not have it in time.

Q only had six hours left.

James was just glad they’d swam together a lot… He knew Q could swim for a long time…tread water—perhaps—longer than James could.

“I’m so sorry, love… I’m coming for you, I promise.”

For his part, Q, in the video, looked quite calm.

800Q8

“He snapped his glasses in half.” James said after staring at the image that someone had placed on the largest screen.

“What?” Jen asked suddenly, stopping her work.

“Why would he do that?”

“Oh God, Q… I’m an idiot!” She slapped herself in the forehead.

“What?”

“I can’t beat Q, there’s no way. But, Q put a tracker into it. It doesn’t send an alarm, but you can only access it if you know him.” She began typing and questions appeared on her screen. “Tea?”

“Earl Grey with lemon.”

“Correct.” She said after typing it in. “Companion?”

“Sarah.” James instantly answered.

“Show?”

“TV or Online?” James asked.

“It just says show…”

“Supernatural.” James went out on the limb.

“Correct. Movie?”

“Star Wars.”

“Invalid.”

“Episode III original trilogy—and don’t word it differently.”

“Correct.” Jen smiled. “Bond?”

“Eyes.”

“Right. Flower?”

“Allergic, but cherry blossom.”

“We’re in… Give me a moment.” Jen said, typing quickly. “Shit.”

“What?”

“You have an hour?”

“Yes.”

“Good…he’s an hour away. Run James, I’ll send coordinates. Hope you can fly a helicopter because that’s the only way you’ll get there.”

“I’ve got it.” James shouted, already mostly out of the room.

800Q8

When James ran into the room, Q was exhaling the last few small bubbles. His face was screwed up in the torture of needing air but knowing there was none. “Q!” James shouted rushing forward and banging on the glass. Q opened his green eyes and a slight smile curved his lips as he saw James, then he squeezed his eyes tight, in pain, in agony. “I’ll get you out.” James said moving to get a better angle to shoot the glass, but then he froze. Q took a frantic, needing gasp of air, only to find water. His eyes opened and widened and his whole body rebelled at the water.

It was over rather quickly, water taking over where there had been no air.

James shot the glass from the side and water began to spill out. He shot it six more times before it shattered and Q’s limp body fell out as well, being cut open by the shards of glass. James ran forward and pulled him into his arm.

“No… Q? Come on, wake up.” He said emptying the water from his lover’s lungs. “Don’t…please. Remember? I’m the one who gets to die bloody and awful in the field, not you. We didn’t prepare for this. Come on you fucking childish git.” James snapped pounding on his chest. James felt two of his ribs break under him…but that was an expected horror. “Come on…come on… I can’t do this… I can’t. Jason, I can’t… I need you. What would a rusty bloody big ship like me do without someone tugging on me? Come on…please.” The rhythm became faltered, broken, but still present. “Come on. Dammit…come on Jason…don’t leave me you selfish bastard. I’m the selfish one remember?”

It was four minutes, four agonizing minutes.

Q gagged and instantly twisted his head to the side, coughing up the remaining water, struggling to breathe.

“Oh, thank God.” James sighed in relief. “Q can you hear me? Q? Jason?”

“Can I finish coughing out my lungs?” Q demanded between coughs. “And who’s been dancing on my chest?”

“Me.”

“You’re a bastard.”

“I saved your life.”

“True…very true.” Q rasped.

“Primary’s alright, repeat, primary’s alive.” Alec had been in the room, James hadn’t even noticed. “Medical evac will be here in five minutes. We need his head, lungs, ribs, and possibly some gashes looked after, make sure they know that.” He said before leaving the two alone, heading for the roof.

“I thought I lost you.”

“Technically you did…but I’m back. I’m tired.”

“You don’t get to sleep, Jason…not right now.” James whispered, pulling the younger man against his chest. “You can’t sleep right now. Stay awake for me, please.”

“You fucking broke ribs.”

“I wanted you back.” James chuckled, kissing his forehead.

“Did you call me a selfish bastard?”

“Probably.” James shrugged, kissing him again, gently on the lips. Q closed his eyes and James shook him gently.

“Stooooop.” He groaned as his ribs were jostled even in the slightest.

“Don’t go to sleep.”

“You don’t have to bloody torture me you ass.”

“Glad to see you’ve still got spunk.” James smiled. “Just don’t go to sleep.”

“Can’t with you breathing down my back, dad.”

“You’re tetchy.”

“I just died. I have earned the right. I’ve had to deal with your tetchiness when you come back from the grave, so get over it, ass.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, ass.” Q smiled gently.

“They’re in here.” Alec called loudly, to give James and Q warning.

“Don’t let go of me… I can’t bloody see and everything fucking hurts…don’t let go of me.”

“I never would, Q.”

“Thank you.” Q smiled slightly as the medical team began fretting over him. Even as they pulled him away. James’ hand never left Q’s: even a day later when Q woke in medical, on oxygen, James’ hand was still in his.

“I guess we’re even then.” Q muttered when he woke up.

“What?”

“I’ve been in that chair a lot…it sucks doesn’t it?”

“It fucking sucks, Q.” James sighed.

“Take it as a lesson and don’t be so damn nonchalant… Now when are you sneaking me out of this place?”

“Pot. Kettle.”

“Fuck you, I want to go home.”

“Pot. Kettle.” James grinned and pressed a kiss to Q’s forehead. “I love you.”

“Mm…I love you too…”

**Author's Note:**

> See? Not too bad.  
> Much Love.


End file.
